


My Soulmate's Soulmate

by solrosan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Laura Barton, F/F, F/M, Polyamory, Polyamory - Vee, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-07 07:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4255431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solrosan/pseuds/solrosan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Clint married a woman with two names on her wrist – his, and one written with Russian letters.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this tumblr post](http://polyshippingday.tumblr.com/post/122827465833/darkmistandodddreams-i-need-more-polyamory) talking about poly soulmate AUs (especially the “Adults who find one of their soulmates and go searching for the last one together, because they found each other, but someone’s still missing!”) and a loooong conversation with [skyfallat221b](http://archiveofourown.org/users/skyfallat221b) about different ways to work all of them into the Clint/Laura/Natasha dynamic.
> 
> * * *

Clint married a woman with two names on her wrist – his, and one written with Russian letters. Cyrillic, Laura told him it's called, and she told him that her other soulmate's name was Natalia Alianovna Romanova. At first, Clint had been a bit disappointed that his soulmate had two names on her wrist, but then he had thought that it was kind of hot that it was another woman. He had never met anyone with two soulmates before, but he had heard people talk about them, often in very negative terms. They were said to be greedy and promiscuous, that they couldn’t really love or commit to anyone. That they didn’t have real soulmates. Getting to know Laura, though, Clint soon learned that there was no more committed or loving person in the world. And she was his soulmate. And she made him whole, even if a part of her was still missing.

They didn’t put their life on hold, waiting for Laura’s second soulmate. Clint asked Laura more than once through the years if she wanted to go looking for Natalia, but she usually just shook her head, and said that she’d found him and that was enough; she wasn’t greedy. She had found one soulmate, and that was more than a lot of people ever did. Clint still took night courses in Russian, just in case, and during his third year at SHIELD that was the reason he was sent to Moscow to take out the KGB agent known to them as Black Widow. Not because of his amazing Russian, but at least he could read the language and speak it like an American. Laura was much better at Russian, but then she had been at it since she'd been eight.

It wasn’t the most exciting of missions, though the Russians always knew how to put up a good fight. Clint sat waiting on a roof, trying to remember the Russian word for “money”, when a voice in his ear told him that the target was on her way. He put on his holster, picked up his bow, and got in position. He pulled an arrow, and then he waited.

It didn’t take long before he saw her on the opposite rooftop. He fixed his eyes on her as she walked to the side of the roof and attached hooks of some kind to both the building and her belt. Clint had seen photos of her during briefings (and if that red hair was her natural color he would eat the drive belt of the tractor he was fixing up back home), and he had read her file, but watching her through the telescope sight was different. Something _felt_ different, or rather, he felt something _at all_. Something other than the strain from the string on his fingers, and the slow beating of his heart. Instead he actually felt his heart beating faster, and harder, and when the go signal came, he put the arrow in Black Widow’s thigh instead of in her head.

The KGB agent still took out two SHIELD agents before they overpowered her, and even then they were probably only able to do that due to her blood loss. Agent Coulson didn’t even try to hide his annoyance when Clint reported in – apparently “I thought she could be of use to us” wasn’t the right response to “Why didn’t you follow orders?”. To be honest, Clint wasn’t sure why he hadn’t taken the shot. He had an inkling, but that explanation would have sent Coulson off a cliff, so Clint had decided to not tell him. He had, however, asked for permission to talk to Black Widow. It hadn’t been a very popular request, but since she didn’t seem to talk to anyone, he was allowed. 

Clint was nervous when he walked into the room where they held her. If he was wrong, then he would have sacrificed two agents for a hunch. He could stand by his claim that the KGB agent would be useful to them, but he wasn’t actually sure about that. The Russians didn't turn easily.

Black Widow gave him a suspicious glare when he opened the door, before turning back to staring at the ceiling. She was tied to a hospital bed, her injured leg dressed, and a blood bag hooked up to her left arm. Clint was surprised that she hadn’t pulled it out; he know he would have in her situation, even with the straps on her arms. The straps were a problem, though, since they held her down by the wrists. Removing them didn’t seem like a good option, so instead he took a firm hold of her hand and pushed up the strap as far as he could along her arm.

And there it was, as clear and as familiar as if he had been looking at his own wrist: _Laura Martinelli_. The relief of being right was brief, and it felt as if a bucket of ice had been poured over him when he realized how close he had come to kill Laura’s soulmate. 

He let her go immediately after he’d seen the name, but she kept fighting against the restrains so violently that he was afraid she’d reopen the arrow wound on her leg. When she finally calmed down, looking greenish and pale after the struggle, he removed his armguard to show him the name on his own wrist. Black Widow’s eyes widened, and when she looked at him, she looked both confused and scared. Clint didn’t know what to do other than smile.

Later, when Clint left the room, the first thing he did was to call Laura. It wasn’t until the first signals had gone through before he realized that it was in the middle of the night in Iowa. 

“ _What’s happened?_ ” Laura said as soon as she picked up, sound more worried than drowsy. “ _Something’s not right, something feels different._ ”

“Everything’s fine,” Clint said. “It’s just that… Laura, I’ve found Natalia...”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On popular demand! I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> * * *

“But she’s Laura’s soulmate!”

Clint could hear Nick Fury sigh on the other end of the phone line. They had been arguing about what to do with Black Widow for at least ten minutes by now, and Clint knew his arguments were thin – argument, really, there was just the one – but he couldn’t let them take her! She was Laura’s soulmate.

“I’ve already told her that I’m going to take her back.”

“ _It’s not my problem that you promise your wife things you can’t keep._ My _problem—_ ”

“Not Laura – though, yeah, I did that too,” Clint said, making a face. He hadn’t even thought that far. “I mean Natalia. I said I’d bring her to Laura.”

“ _So you have the authority to grant entrance visas to KGB agents now?_ ”

“She’s Laura’s soulmate!”

“ _Oh, is she? I completely forgot._ ”

“What I mean is, she’s Laura’s soulmate, so she can’t be bad.”

“ _Remind me, was it a double or a triple homicide we finally got you on?_ ” Fury asked, dryly. “ _Or was it the fraud? Or the embezzling? No, no it was the murders, wasn’t it?_ ”

Clint inhaled through his teeth. “Point taken.”

“ _It’s not that I don’t care, Barton. We just can’t make decisions based on whose soulmate someone is or isn’t; especially not when it’s your wife’s second one._ ”

“She didn’t choose it!” Clint spat out. He paused to take deep breath to calm down, but he couldn’t quite keep the sudden anger out of his voice when he continued. “She’s born with two soulmates. It’s just as normal as having one. It’s not a—“

“ _Hey!_ ” Fury raised his voice. “ _I know. You know I don’t have anything against polypneuma._ ”

Clint made an incoherent noise. 

“ _You’re the one who doesn’t want the rest of SHIELD to know about your family, which makes it really hard to argue that we should keep Widow alive, and take her back to the States, on the basis that she’s your wife’s soulmate. Even if we_ did _soulmate exceptions. Which we don’t._ ”

Clint sighed. Was that his choice? Exposing Laura and Cooper to his world of death to maybe, _maybe_ get to bring Natalia to Laura? A not insignificant part of him screamed “It’s not worth it! Kill the Russian girl.” He would still have his soulmate, their son would still be safe. Things would go on as they had these last six years. Only… Laura would never be whole. She would never get to experience that. It didn’t matter that she said it would be all right, because she didn’t know what she was missing. He knew. Clint knew. Because he had her. He couldn’t rob her of that. She was his soulmate, and he loved her too much to take that opportunity from her.

“ _I’m sorry, Barton. I know it’s hard._ ”

“With respect, you don’t know shit.”

“ _I suppose not._ ”

“Laura completes me, Nick,” Clint said, wearily. “I want this for her. I’ve wanted this for her since I met her. Please? Natalia wants to meet Laura. She won’t make trouble; I’ll vouch for her. And she can be a huge asset to SHIELD. She’s good, and you know it! That’s why I’m here.”

“ _Barton…_ ”

“You have a really good track record for turning Laura Martinelli’s soulmates.”

Fury was silent for a long time before he muttered: “ _Fine._ ”

“What? Really?”

“ _I’m guessing it’s the only way to shut you up._ ”

Clint laughed. “Yes.”

“ _But it’s on you, and she’s not going near_ anything _but your farm until I say otherwise._ ”

“Yes, sir.”

“ _I’ll see to it, and get in touch about the details of her transfer,_ ” Fury said. “ _I don’t want to regret this._ ”

“I really hope you won’t have to,” Clint said. “Thank you.”

He hung up, laughing and drying his eyes from tears of relief. He hadn’t dared hope for this to work, and he wasn’t entirely sure how it had, but through some miracle he hadn’t killed Natalia and she was going to go with him to the United States.


	3. Chapter 3

Their transport to the US left nine days later, when the doctors had deemed it safe for Natalia to fly with her arrow wound. She was half-lying on a gurney in the back of the plane, looking pale and… uncertain. Clint hadn’t been allowed to be alone with her since she had been under constant supervision in Moscow, so he had no idea what was going through her head, but soon after take-off, he got out of his seat and walked up to her. 

“Do you need anything?” he asked quietly in Russian.

“Water would be nice.”

Clint nodded, and left to fetch a bottle. She was in pain, it was obvious, but since she kept refusing all types of drugs there wasn’t much he could do. He didn’t blame her for not taking their drugs, but he didn’t like seeing her in pain. He had spent the last week by her bedside, but since there had always been at least one other agent in the room, they hadn’t exchanged more than looks and smiles. Still, there was something that just felt right about Natalia, and Clint was pretty sure she felt the same. He had heard that there were monopneumas who felt a special connection to their polypneuma partner’s other soulmate, but he had always taken that with a grain of salt. He had thought of it as justifications after the fact, and ways to try legitimize things in the eyes of the bigots, but now he wasn’t sure. After all, there was a reason he had put the arrow in her leg and not her head.

“Here,” he said, handing Natalia the bottle as he came back.

She took it, forcing herself to sit up better, making a pained face and cursing quietly. On reflex, Clint reached out to steady her, but she waved him off. 

“Your pronunciation’s terrible,” she said in English, unscrewing the cap. 

Clint blinked like a fool. “You speak English.”

“Yeah,” she said, smirking, and taking a sip of water. “The intel of this organization you work for is about as good as your Russian.”

Clint laughed. He couldn’t understand how SHIELD had missed that Black Widow spoke English – but then they hadn’t been able to figure out her real name either. It didn’t matter, though. The only thing Clint could think about was that Natalia would be able to talk to Cooper. It was ridiculous, but there it was, and it meant the world to him for some reason.

Natalia put away the water. ”Tell me about her.”

“About Laura?”

Natalia nodded.

Clint did a quick scan of the aircraft to make sure the others were out of earshot, but they were all too occupied with trying to get some sleep to be bothered with what happened in the back. 

“She’s amazing,” Clint said, turning back to Natalia. “I’m being bias, but she is, truly amazing. She’s strong and confident. She sees people, their qualities, and she always speaks up when someone’s not treated right, or something’s wrong.”

“When did you meet her?”

“Six years ago.” Clint grinned at the memory. “She was on tour in Afghanistan, and—“

“She’s in the army?”

“Yeah, she was in the air force, and I was being an idiot breaking into a military base.”

“And are you married?”

Clint nodded. “We talked about waiting until she met you, because we didn’t know if you wanted to or not, obviously – and if nothing else, the paperwork’s easier that way – but when she got pregnant—“

“She has children?” Natalia whispered, her eyes suddenly wide.

“We have a son, he’s two.”

Natalia nodded, turning away from him. For the first time since Clint had seen her through the telescope sight, she looked vulnerable and lost. Even strapped to a hospital bed, hooked up to IVs she’d seemed more confident. 

He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. It startled her, but she didn’t pull away.

“It’ll be all right,” Clint said, squeezing her shoulder gently. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“Does it ever bother you…” Natalia said, thoughtfully, looking at her wrist. “Does it ever bother you that she has two? That I…”

“Not in the least,” said Clint, shaking his head. “You?”

“I’m still getting used to the idea,” Natalia admitted, looking back up at him. “In Russia, we don’t— It’s not something you talk about.”

Clint tried to keep a neutral face, nodding slowly. It was easy to forget that there were places in the world where people like Laura had an even harder time than they did in the States. Sometimes that made him furious, but now it just left a bad taste in his mouth. 

“You’ll love her; she really is amazing,” he said, to steer the conversation in a different direction. “She has so much love to give that I’m sometimes amazed she doesn’t have the entire phone book on her wrist. And she’s dying to meet you.”

Natalia nodded, moving her thumb over Laura’s name, the same way Clint had seen Laura stroke hers a thousands of times.

“You have nothing to worry about,” he said again. “I promise.”


	4. Chapter 4

They were driving to the farm in a white Volvo that SHIELD had lent Clint. It wasn’t a very long drive – at least not compared to the transatlantic flight – but less than a mile away, Clint pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the engine.

Natalia looked at him, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“I was going to ask you that,” Clint said. “You look like you’re about to throw up.”

“I won’t.”

“Good, because Coulson would kill me if you do that in the car.” He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. I promise.”

Clint didn’t know how many times he had told her that since they left Russia, but he couldn’t emphasize it enough. Even if it probably didn’t do much to calm her. He couldn’t blame her. After all, _he_ was maddeningly nervous, and he was probably the one with the best grasp of the situation and what would happen; he knew Laura, he had talked Natalia, but most importantly, he had met his soulmate. He knew what that felt like, he knew what would come.

Natalia smiled faintly, and said after a drawn out silence: “I’m a killer. Most mothers don’t like it when you bring killers home to meet their children.”

“We’re all killers,” Clint said, soberly. “I’m the only one who’s done it without some form of governmental sanctioning.”

Natalia gave him a sheepish look.

“Okay, then,” Clint said, laughing. “Laura is the only one who _hasn’t_ killed without some form of governmental sanctioning, but she doesn’t have a No Murderers Around Cooper-policy.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Natalia exhaled and rolled back her shoulders. “Okay.”

“Ready?” Clint asked.

Natalia scoffed. “No.”

Clint chuckled, and turned the engine back on. When they reached the farm he drove up and parked the car in front of the house, much closer than he usually did so that Natalia wouldn’t have to walk so far on her leg. As they stepped out, he heard the door to house open, and turned around to see Laura coming out on the porch. He raised his hand, waving at her, but even though Laura waved back, he knew she didn’t really see him. She was looking past him, at the young red head who got out of the passenger seat, struggling with her crutches.

When Natalia raised her head, seeing Laura waiting for her, she just stared. And stared. And stared. Clint smiled, coxing her with a nod to go up to the house, but the feared KGB agent, who singlehandedly took out entire platoons of grown men, seemed completely frozen to the ground at the sight of Laura Martinelli-Barton. 

Instead it was Laura who approached. Slowly, she stepped off the porch, and walked towards them. Or towards Natalia – Clint was pretty sure he didn’t exist in either of the women’s consciousness right now. So he watched as his soulmate walk faster until she was practically running, with tears of joy filling her eyes, and throwing herself around Natalia’s neck. Natalia didn’t miss a beat, dropping the crutches and catching her soulmate. 

Clint teared up as well, as his wife wept of happiness in the arms of her second soulmate. He remembered his own first meeting with Laura, how they had stared at each other for two eternities until she had reached out her hand to touch his face, as to see if he was actually real. It had been so understated, yet so perfect. She had completed him with that first skin-to-skin contact and now she finally got to experience that herself. This moment was worth all the risks. If he had killed Natalia… By all the gods in the world, he would never have forgiven himself if he had robbed Laura of this moment.

A movement caught Clint’s attention in the corner of his eye. Cooper was stumbling out of the house, and within a split second Clint was up on the porch.

“Hey, buddy,” he said, crouching down in front of the boy. “Remember daddy?”

Cooper put a chubby hand on each of Clint’s cheeks, smiling. Clint chuckled, giving the boy a kiss on the nose, before he picked him up and looked back at the women he had left by the car. Laura was holding Natalia’s face in her hands, smiling through her tears and speaking softly in Russian. Natalia looked overwhelmed, but she too was smiling with her entire body.

“Mom sad,” Cooper said, pointing in Laura’s direction.

“No, she’s happy,” Clint said, giving him another kiss, this time on the cheek. “Mom’s really happy.”

Cooper didn’t seem completely convinced by this, trying to reach his mother and worm his way out of Clint’s arms. 

“Okay, okay. Let’s go to mommy,” Clint told him, amused, yet he stopped a couple of steps from the women, to not intrude on their moment.

“See,” he said quietly to Cooper. “Mom’s happy. She’s smiling. And that” – he pointed at Natalia – “is your Aunt Nat. She’s going to stay with us for a while, I think.”

Laura sobbed, or laughed, or both, but dried her eyes and nodded. “She is.” She took a steady hold of Natalia’s hand. “She is.”

“I am,” Natalia whispered.

Laura kissed Natalia’s hand, holding it over her heart. Then she turned to Clint, reaching out for him, inviting him to join them. 

“Thank you,” she said, when he took her hand. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“I love you,” said Clint, smiling, as she tilted her head up for him to kiss her. 

“I love you too,” Laura whispered against his lips and kissed him again. She tasted different, she felt different. She _was_ different. She was whole. 

Clint looked between the women, who once again looked at each other in awe over having found each other, and his little boy in his arms. He realized that even if he had met his soulmate years before, he hadn’t truly been whole until this very moment. 

Finally, his family was complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support and gentle nudging to make this more than a one shot. <3 
> 
> Now... if anyone feel like writing some Nat/Laura smut, I would be forever and ever grateful. Pretty please?


End file.
